October 24, 2018

States Won't Give Up Abortion Pill Mandate

People can gain access to contraceptives and abortion pills without the government forcing religious and pro-life groups to provide them. But California, Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Virginia can't seem to accept that. These state governments are challenging federal regulations that protect religious and pro-life non-profits who conscientiously object to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) abortion pill mandate. Read more...

October 17, 2018

Indiana Court Asked to Review Abortion Law

With a markedly different makeup on the U.S. Supreme Court, Indiana officials are asking that the justices take up the case of a 2016 pro-life law that's been repeatedly blocked by lower courts. Before leaving the governorship to serve as Donald Trump's vice president, then-Gov. Mike Pence signed legislation banning abortions motivated specifically by a baby's race, sex, ethnicity, or potential disabilities. It also required abortionists to bury or cremate fetal remains rather than treating them as medical waste. Read more...

October 08, 2018

Court Allows Tennessee Amendment to Stand

The United States Supreme Court will not hear a challenge to a pro-life amendment to the Tennessee state constitution. Amendment 1 categorically excludes abortion rights from the state's constitution. The Supreme Court declined to admit an appeal on the matter in a decision released on Oct.1, the first day of the court's new session. Without further avenues of appeal, the amendment - which explicitly states that "nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion" - will stand. Read more...

Court Reinstates Missouri Abortion Restrictions

A federal appeals court handed pro-lifers a victory by reinstating a Missouri law that requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals and abortion clinics to be set up as "ambulatory surgical centers." The 3-0 ruling by the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's injunction that prevented the law from going into effect. The decision could suspend abortion services in Columbia, Mo., and prevent a Kansas City clinic from regaining its license, Planned Parenthood officials said. Read more...

Judge Strikes Down St. Louis Ordinance

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri has declared a city ordinance intended to make St. Louis a "Sanctuary City" for abortion to be unconstitutional and violates several Missouri state statutes, including the Missouri Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Judge Audrey Fleissig found that the ordinance violated the First Amendment rights of a pregnant women's home and the group of Catholic grade schools "to employ or house individuals who advocate for or perform abortions," practices that are contrary to the missions of both organizations. Read more...

September 19, 2018

Pro-Lifers Sue Toledo Cops

Pro-life activists have filed a lawsuit against Toledo, Ohio, and its police force, accusing them of violating their free speech and religious freedom rights. Calvin Zastrow and his daughter, Corrie, filed the civil rights action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio against the city of Toledo, its police chief and two officers. At issue were multiple incidents in which the Zastrows were forced by police to stop holding religious pro-life demonstrations on a public sidewalk across the street from an abortion clinic. Read more...

Judge Rules in Favor of Indiana Clinic

A judge has ruled in favor of an abortion chain seeking to open a clinic in Indiana but pro-life activists are vowing to fight the effort. Whole Woman's Health Alliance, which is headquartered in Texas, went to court over its plans to open a South Bend abortuary. Jackie Appleman, executive director of Saint Joseph County Right to Life says the Indiana Department of Health denied the license request and Whole Woman's appealed and won a ruling last week. Read more...

August 25, 2018

Pro-Lifers Lose Fetal Tissue Appeal

Pro-life advocates lost an appeal that challenged the University of Minnesota's use of aborted fetal tissue for medical research. The state Court of Appeals said the lawsuit filed in 2016 by Pro-Life Action Ministries is moot because the Legislature clarified the law, specifically allowing research on aborted fetal tissue, while the case was pending. Read more...

Rulings Could Curb Campus Censorship

Recent First Amendment rulings by the Supreme Court could force courts and university administrators to take a closer look at controversial practices that have marginalized certain political views – often conservative ones – on campus. Free speech on campus has emerged as a hot debate in recent years, amid a rash of speakers being disinvited or violently protested. These issues are often handled in-house – but now, the courts could hold sway. Read more...

August 21, 2018

Iowa Heartbeat Exception Clause Challenged

A Polk County District Court Judge Michael Huppert recently placed a temporary injunction on Iowa’s new fetal heartbeat abortion ban while it is challenged in court. Save The 1, a pro-life organization based in Michigan representing over 600 people who were conceived in rape or incest and mothers who became pregnant under such circumstances, filed a motion to intervene. They are opposed to the exceptions in the law made for cases of rape, incest, and fetal abnormalities. Read more...

Man Points Gun at Pro-Life Counselor

A pro-life sidewalk counselor called 911 after a man pointed a loaded gun at him while he was ministering to women outside an abortion mill in Illinois. Police arrived on the scene and arrested 27-year-old Kevin Brooks from Springfield, Missouri. Long-time pro-lifer John Ryan, the alleged victim, said he is undaunted by the incident. Read more...

July 24, 2018

Texas Abortion Laws Under Attack

Woman’s Whole Health, a chain of Texas abortion clinics and the plaintiff from the original 2016 case against the State of Texas, filed another lawsuit. This time, Women’s Whole Health is trying to repeal a number of laws that are considered to be standard restrictions on abortions nationwide. Read more...

June 27, 2018

High Court Rules for Crisis Pregancy Centers

The Supreme Court ruled California cannot require so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" to provide information about the availability of abortion services elsewhere in the state, a move in favor of anti-abortion clinics that claimed the state law violated their First Amendment rights. The case, brought by two "crisis pregnancy centers," challenged a California law called the "California Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency Act, otherwise known as the FACT Act. The law required the clinics to notify pregnant women seeking services that California provides free or low-cost abortion services and tell the women if staff at the center are licensed healthcare professionals. Read more...

June 21, 2018

Pro-Life Group Sues Ball State U.

The Students for Life chapter at Ball State University filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Indiana-based public institution for refusing funding to their group. The pro-life group had requested that the Student Activity Fee Committee, which is made up of students and administrators, grant $300 for the group's initiative, "Pregnant on Campus." The initiative helps students who are pregnant or parenting by giving them information for organizations that can assist them emotionally and financially, or help them with other material needs. Read more...

June 16, 2018

Abortionists Attack Texas Laws

The abortion lobby in Texas launched a new legal strategy it hopes will invalidate scores of pro-life laws that have been on the books for years. Attorneys representing the infamous Texas abortion provider Whole Woman’s Health filed a lawsuit against the state’s ultrasound requirement, 24-hour waiting period, licensing standards, requirement that abortions be performed only by doctors rather than clinic staff, and more. Read more...

Fight Continues Over Tax-Paid Abortions

Arguments were heard in the Fourth District Appellate Court in Springfield on if House Bill 40 violates the Constitution. HB40 was signed into law in September 2017. It expanded abortion coverage for women insured by Medicaid and the State Employees Group Insurance. Read more...

May 16, 2018

Planned Parenthood Challenges Iowa Law

A lawsuit challenging the nation's most restrictive abortion law was filed in Iowa, a state that for years was largely left out of Republican efforts to overturn abortion protections and where the Democratic attorney general has refused to defend the law. If allowed to take effect, the law would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, around the sixth week of pregnancy, a point when, abortion-rights groups say, many women don't know that they are pregnant. Read more...

April 09, 2018

Clinic Attacks New Mississippi Abortion Law

The last abortion facility in Mississippi filed another lawsuit to overturn a state law that prohibits abortions on unborn babies after 15 weeks. The Jackson Women's Health Organization and the Center for Reproductive Rights allege a whole group of state laws are unconstitutional because they restrict women's access to abortion. Their lawsuit challenges the 15-week abortion ban, a 24-hour waiting period, a requirement that appointments between a doctor and patient be in person, a requirement that only doctors perform abortions and several abortion clinic regulations. Read more...

April 05, 2018

Gag Order Stands in Undercover Video Cases

The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from a pro-life group seeking to release undercover footage detailing alleged misconduct in the abortion industry. The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case means that the lower court decisions will stand, and additional footage may not be released. Read more...

March 19, 2018

Pro-Choice Government Bullies Pro-Life Clinics

Government compels licensed centers to provide free advertisements for government-provided abortions. And government compels unlicensed centers to say — in large fonts, in as many as 13 languages, even on their own websites — that they do not have medical providers that the government itself says, by not requiring them to be licensed, are not necessary for the services they provide. The government’s obvious nasty purpose is to make the unlicensed centers’ clients unnecessarily uneasy. Read more...

Judge Revokes Pro-Lifers' Free-Speech Rights

Pro-life advocates who entered a Michigan abortion facility in December may no longer protest outside abortion facilities, a Bloomfield Township judge ruled. The judge also sentenced Monica Migliorino Miller of South Lyon, Robert Kovaly of Hastings, Patrice Woodworth of Minnesota, Will Goodman of Wisconsin and Matthew Connolly of Illinois to 12 months of probation for trespassing and interfering with police during the Dec. 2 incident. Read more...

February 23, 2018

California Claims It 'Needs' Abortion Promoted

California has filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court complaining that it cannot adequately promote abortion services without the help of a tiny number of pro-life pregnancy centers that mostly offer pregnancy tests, diapers and counseling. The argument comes in a lawsuit against a state law, similar to others that have been struck down elsewhere, that requires the pro-life centers to provide contact information for state-funded abortion services to every woman who walks through their doors. Read more...

January 11, 2018

Trudeau Sued Over Summer Jobs Funding

Toronto Right to Life Association is suing Justin Trudeau's Liberal government for violating the Charter by requiring employers sign an "attestation" supporting abortion and transgender rights to receive summer job funding grants. "Toronto Right to Life feels it's important to defend our rights and fight back against this discrimination, so that we can continue to be a voice for voiceless preborn children," said group president Blaise Alleyne. Read more...

January 06, 2018

Court Strikes Down Baltimore Ordinance

In a decision with major national implications for pregnancy centers across the country, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously affirmed that a Baltimore City ordinance requiring pro-life pregnancy care centers to post signs promoting abortions violated their First Amendment free speech rights. In contrast to decisions by the Ninth Circuit which validated a similar law in California, the Fourth Circuit found that the Baltimore ordinance was not commercial or professional speech. Read more...

Center Challenges Illinois Law

The Thomas More Society filed a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) against the state of Illinois over a new law that requires pro-life pregnancy centers to discuss the benefits of abortion and sterilization procedures. The law also requires the centers, if asked, to refer patients to abortion providers despite the centers’ opposition to these procedures. The Thomas More Society is representing Dr. Jim Gallant and Hope Life Center, a pro-life pregnancy center in Sterling, Illinois. Read more...

December 11, 2017

DOJ to Investigate Planned Parenthood

The Justice Department has launched a federal investigation into Planned Parenthood's practices and the sale of fetal tissue. Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd formally requested unredacted documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same panel that led the congressional probe into the women's health organization. "The Department of Justice appreciates the offer of assistance in obtaining these materials, and would like to request the Committee provide unredacted copies of records contained in the report, in order to further the Department's ability to conduct a thorough and comprehensive assessment of that report based on the full range of information available," Boyd wrote. Read more...

December 07, 2017

Illinois Lawsuit Attacks Abortion Funding

A taxpayer lawsuit against the state of Illinois is challenging a new law that uses public funds for abortion. Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner broke his promises to pro-lifers when he signed into law at the end of September legislation (House Bill 40) to expand taxpayer-subsidized abortions. The complaint was made by the Thomas More Society (TMS) on behalf of Illinois taxpayers who do not want their hard earned money to be used to fund as many as 30,000 abortions a year. Read more...

Illinois Hearing Set December 28

Lawyers for pro-life groups and the state of Illinois will be in court Dec. 28 arguing whether a lawsuit that would block public funding of abortions should be dismissed. Pro-life groups also may seek to stop the state from spending any money on abortions until the lawsuit is resolved. A controversial state law that provides funding for abortion services for women covered by Medicaid and state employee health insurance is set to go into effect Jan. 1. Read more...

December 04, 2017

Cold Texas 'Justice' for the Unborn

Killing these children prior to dismemberment is apparently too merciful for courts that protect "reproductive rights" at any cost and for the abortion-rights advocates who grow more zealous by the day. Women's rights demand, we are told, the unlimited ability to dismember living, unborn children between 13 and 24 weeks' gestation. And in Texas, despite legislators' efforts to prevent the practice, those children will continue to be dismembered alive, as the result of a recent decision by federal judge Lee Yeakel. Read more...

December 01, 2017

Students Sue University for Blocking Protest

Miami University students filed a lawsuit against their school's president, trustees and other administrators over a "pro-life" protest. The Students for Life group says the university officials effectively shut down their "cemetery of innocents" display at the Hamilton campus. The federal lawsuit claims the university violated the students' free speech rights. University officials refused to approve the display unless the students agreed to post warning signs around campus with a "trigger warning" that urged people not to view it. Read more...

Lawsuit Targets Tax-Funded Abortions

More than a dozen groups and lawmakers who oppose abortion have filed a lawsuit challenging a new law allowing state employee health insurance and Medicaid to cover abortion services. The Thomas More Society filed the action Thursday in Sangamon County Circuit Court. It says including abortion among procedures covered by state employee health insurance and Medicaid beginning Jan. 1 is illegal. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the measure Sept. 28. It infuriated conservatives who allege he promised to veto it. Read more...

November 27, 2017

Judge Overturns Texas Dismemberment Ban

A federal judge has struck down a Texas law that bans second-trimester dismemberment abortions, those in which an unborn baby is "torn limb from limb" and then extracted from the uterus. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled that banning dismemberment abortion – a form of "D&E" (dilation and evacuation) abortion – places an "undue burden" upon women. "The State's valid interest in promoting respect for the life of the unborn, although legitimate, is not sufficient to justify such a substantial obstacle to the constitutionally protected right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy before fetal viability," the judge wrote. Read more...

November 14, 2017

Supreme Court to Hear California Law Challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court today decided to hear a pro-life challenge against a California law that forces pro-life centers, such as pregnancy medical clinics, to advertise abortion. The decision marks the first time the country's highest court will hear an abortion-related case during the Trump administration. Pro-life advocates who have opposed the law, including The National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), praised the Supreme Court for deciding to hear what it called a "critical free speech case." Read more...

FBI Probing Trafficking of Baby Parts?

The FBI has requested unredacted documents from Congress that were obtained during the 2015 hearings on Planned Parenthood's allegedly illegal trafficking of aborted baby body parts for profit, reported The Hill. Pro-life activists have welcomed the move as a first sign of a criminal probe into the abortion giant. Read more...

Satanist Sues Missouri Over 72-Hour Wait

Missouri law mandates a 72-hour waiting period prior to having an abortion. The woman, an adherent of the so-called "Satanic Temple," claims that the law violates her religious beliefs and violates her freedom of religion because she, as a satanist, does not believe that life begins at conception. Read more...

October 12, 2017

ACLA Wants Abortion Pills in Pharmacies

Women should be able to get abortion-inducing drugs at their local pharmacies in addition to abortion facilities, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues in a new lawsuit. The group sued on behalf of a Hawaii abortionist and three medical entities against federal regulations of the drug RU-486, also known as mifepristone and the brand name Mifeprex. Under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations of Mifeprex, abortionists must order, carry and dispense the drug themselves or send women to a clinic, medical office or hospital that carries it. Read more...

September 21, 2017

NY Attorney General Attacks Pro-Lifers

The Thomas More Society attorneys are defending a group of peaceful pro-life advocates from Queens against New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman in a federal lawsuit that accuses them of threats and violence against abortion clinic patients. Last week the Thomas More Society filed a motion to dismiss the New York Attorney General's lawsuit. The motion argues that the lawsuit is without merit because it is actually an assault on the First Amendment rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors. Read more...

Red Rose Rescue Activists Arrested

Ten pro-life activists, including two Catholic priests, were arrested this morning at a Michigan and a Virginia abortion facility while attempting to persuade women not to abort their unborn children. Read more...

September 13, 2017

Satanists Join Missouri Abortion Battle

Missouri has reportedly doubled its abortion capacity this year "thanks to the Satanic Temple and Planned Parenthood," who have worked in tandem to fight the state's restrictions on abortion. With some of the most clearly defined regulations on abortion in the nation, Missouri had managed to lower the number of abortion facilities to a single clinic, but a second Missouri clinic opened its doors recently and two others plan on following soon. Read more...

High Court to Weight Ohio's Regulations

The state's highest court has heard arguments about whether to keep open Toledo's only abortion clinic. And the case could affect Ohio's seven other clinics as well. In Toledo, none of the local hospitals or medical facilities could or would enter into an agreement with Capital Care Center, the only abortion provider in that city. So that abortion clinic signed on to a transfer agreement with a nearby Michigan hospital. The state concluded that was too far away and in 2014, the Ohio Department of Health ordered the clinic to close. Two lower courts have ruled the clinic could stay open. And now it's up to the Ohio Supreme Court to decide the case. Read more...

September 07, 2017

Trial Could Close Kentucky's Last Clinic

Kentucky's "unapologetically pro-life" governor and the state's last abortion clinic squared off in a federal courtroom in a case that could make it the first US state without an abortion provider. In a three-day trial, the state will argue before a US District judge in Louisville that EMW Women's Surgical Center does not have proper state-required agreements with a hospital and an ambulance service in case of medical emergencies. Read more...

September 05, 2017

Pro-Abort Judge Fines Daleiden $200K

An abortion activist federal judge is slapping pro-life advocate David Daleiden and his lawyers with nearly $200,000 in fines for contempt of court. Federal Judge William H. Orrick ruled on August 31 that Daleiden and his lawyers, Steve Cooley and Brentford Ferreira, must pay up $195,359 to the National Abortion Federation (NAF). On July 17, Orrick held the three in contempt of court for releasing videos he blocked in 2015 after the NAF claimed members would face harassment, intimidation and violence from pro-life advocates if they were released. Read more...

August 30, 2017

Texas Fights for Dismemberment Law

Texas lawmakers are heading back to court for a hearing in Austin aimed at reversing a lawsuit blocking a ban on second trimester abortions The hearing comes after Texas courts signed a ban on dismemberment abortions into law in May. Texas abortion providers filed a retaliatory lawsuit in July, claiming that the new restrictions put an unconstitutional limit on abortion access by banning "dilation and evacuation." Read more...

August 29, 2017

Settlement Reached in 'Bubble Zone' Suit

The Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based nonprofit law firm, has reached a settlement in a case involving anti-abortion groups challenging Chicago's "bubble zone" ordinance regarding abortion clinics. As a result of the settlement, law enforcement officers will be required to receive training on specifics of the ordinance. Read more...

August 24, 2017

Pro-Lifers Challenge Chicago Ordinance

The challenge to the Chicago law creating a “bubble zone” around abortion clinics moves on to federal appellate court with last week’s Thomas More Society filing in the United State Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Court. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in Veronica Price et al. v. The City of Chicago et al., charges that the restrictive ordinance is unconstitutional, prohibiting free speech and censoring the content of free speech. Read more...

Pro-Aborts Want Judge Off the Case

An Ohio Supreme Court justice has refused an abortion clinic's demands that she recuse herself from a case that will determine whether or not the clinic has to shut down for not being in compliance with a state law, simply because she spoke at a pro-life event earlier this year. "Having reviewed the request, I find it to be without merit and will continue to participate in the case," Republican Ohio Supreme Court Justice Sharon Kennedy said Monday in response to a request by the Capital Care Network that she remove herself from its pending case against the state of Ohio. Read more...

August 22, 2017

Jailed Pro-Lifer Requests Letters

Well-known Canadian pro-life witness Mary Wagner is inviting pro-lifers to submit letters defending the unborn child as evidence for her September 12 sentencing hearing. Justice Rick Libman of the Ontario Court of Justice convicted Wagner, 43, of mischief and breach of probation on August 15 following a trial that ended June 29. Wagner was arrested December 12 outside the Bloor West Village Women's Clinic after trying to persuade women in the abortion facility waiting room to choose life for their children. Read more...

August 21, 2017

Court: Arkansas Can Cut Planned Parenthood Funds

Arkansas may block tens of thousands of dollars in Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood, a panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has said. The court found that Planned Parenthood and the three patients could not contest the state's determination "that a medical provider has engaged in misconduct that merits disqualification from the Medicaid program." The 2-1 panel ruling comes two years after the state ended its contract with the organization over videos filmed by undercover investigators that appeared to show involvement in the illegal sale of fetal tissue for profit. Read more...

August 18, 2017

Pro-Lifer Mary Wagner Found Guilty of 'Mischief'

Pro-life activist Mary Wagner is facing a possible jail sentence of 18 months after an Ontario judge found her guilty of mischief and breach of probation. Justice Rick Libman of the Ontario Court of Justice convicted Wagner on charges arising from her December 12, 2016, arrest at the Bloor West Village Women’s Clinic, where she had tried to persuade women to choose life for their unborn children. After delivering his verdict, Libman deferred sentencing Wagner to September 12, so she can prepare. Read more...

Arizona Pro-Aborts Get Tax Dollars

A federal judge awarded Planned Parenthood and other abortionists more than $600,000 over a repealed pro-life law. U.S. District Judge Steven P. Logan, an Obama appointee, ruled that since an Arizona law requiring abortionists to inform patients about the possibility of reversing a chemical abortion was repealed, taxpayers must reimburse Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses everything they spent on fighting the law. Planned Parenthood of Arizona, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Reproductive Rights vigorously fought the informed consent law in the courts. Read more...

February 19, 2017

Norma 'Jane Roe' McCorvey Dead at Age 69

Norma McCorvey, who was the Jane Roe of the infamous Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court case legalizing virtually unlimited abortions, passed away today. McCorvey never had an abortion and eventually became pro-life and dedicated her life to overturning the horrible Supreme Court decision that bared her pseudonym. Read more...

February 09, 2017

Pro-Life Center Supports Kansas Ban

The University of St. Thomas Prolife Center filed an amicus curiae brief this week with the Kansas Supreme Court defending a ban on “live dismemberment” abortion during the second trimester of pregnancy, which opponents have argued is a state constitutional right. The heart of the controversy is whether a law that prohibits “live dismemberment,” a particular type of “dilation and evacuation” abortion, is constitutional under the Kansas Bill of Rights. The law was adopted last April, but the plaintiffs—a women’s clinic and the physicians who own it—claim the Kansas Constitution must be read to contain a state constitutional right to abortion that is at least as expansive as the right created by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. Read more...

January 11, 2017

Inmate Sues Sheriff For Denying Abortion

A former inmate has filed a law suit against the Maury County Sheriff in federal court, claiming he denied her right to an abortion because the pregnancy was not a threat to the inmate's health or the result of rape or incest. "We did not have a specific policy," said Maury County Sheriff Bucky Rowland. "Tennessee Corrections does not have a specific policy. It's really a gray area." Kei'Choura Cathey, 29, first discovered she was pregnant in August, 2015, while awaiting trial. She was charged with facilitation and conspiracy to commit felony murder. Read more...

January 10, 2017

ACLU Files Suit to Block New Kentucky Law

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Monday aimed at blocking a new Kentucky law that would require doctors providing abortions to first perform an ultrasound of the fetus and try to show and describe the image to the patient — even if she objects. The Kentucky General Assembly approved the measure, Kentucky House Bill 2, Saturday with an emergency clause that allowed Gov. Matt Bevin to sign it into law immediately. Read more...

January 09, 2017

Ireland to Lift Abortion Ban?

A special public committee set up to deliberate on the Republic's strict abortion regime is to extend its considerations. The Citizens' Assembly, a randomly selected group of 99 members of the electorate chaired by a Supreme Court judge, is examining the eighth amendment to the constitution which gives equal right to life to the mother and unborn child. The assembly is hearing evidence in public sessions from a wide range of experts and interest groups and also has been deluged with in excess of 13,500 submissions. Read more...

January 06, 2017

City Allowed to Censor Pro-Life Ads

A Canadian pro-life organization is battling against an Alberta city's decision to reject its ads on transit buses this month after the city claimed the ads would hurt women. A judge dismissed the Canadian Centre for Bio-ethical Reform's lawsuit, ruling that the City of Grande Prairie's actions were "reasonable," the Edmonton Journal reports. The ad from the CCBR showed images of unborn babies at seven weeks and 16 weeks and of a blood smear, according to the report. The ad read "Growing … Growing … Gone. Abortion kills children" and listed the organization's website. Read more...

August 18, 2015

Man Arrested for Bringing Bomb to Kansas Abortion Clinic

Police say a man is in custody after he brought a small improvised explosive device into a women's health care clinic that provides abortions in south-central Kansas. Wichita Police Department spokesman Doug Nolte says officers responded to the South Wind Women's Center. He says on-site security inspected a backpack the man brought in and found knives and the explosive device. Read more...

Alabama Judge Blocks Pro-Life Law

In Alabama, a federal judge has blocked an abortion regulations law that could have closed the state’s most popular abortion facility— the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa (WAWC). Currently, WAWC performs about 40 percent of the state’s abortions and it is one of only two facilities that perform second trimester abortions. The legislation passed in 2007 and requires abortionists to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital or contract with a doctor who can handle abortion complications properly. Read more...

August 14, 2015

Tennessee Judge Halts Law Allowing Inspection of Clinics

In Tennessee, a federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction barring district attorneys from enforcing a pro-life law requiring abortion facilities to meet new safety standards. U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp stopped district attorneys in Davidson and Sullivan counties from requiring facilities that perform more than 50 abortions annually to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers. A second law requires women in the state to receive in-person counseling and wait 48 hours prior to getting an abortion. Read more...

Student Sues High School Over Denial of Pro-Life Club

A Las Vegas high school student is suing her school and the school district for denying her bid to start a pro-life club on campus. Attorneys filed the lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Angelique Clark. The West Coast Career & Technical Academy student argues her school and the Clark County School District violated the Equal Access Act and the First Amendment. School officials waited months before telling Clark they denied the club because the topic was controversial. Attorneys sent the district a letter demanding the club be approved, but have said they received no response. The lawsuit also names the district’s superintendent, the school’s principal and assistant principal. Read more...

January 14, 2014

Court Turns Down Arizona Abortion Challenge

The Supreme Court refused to hear Arizona's challenge to the court's Roe vs. Wade decision and its protection for a woman's right to choose abortion through the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. Without comment, the justices turned down Arizona's appeal of a lower-court ruling that blocked a law that would have limited legal abortions to 20 weeks. Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the law from taking effect on grounds that it conflicted with Roe vs. Wade. Read more...

January 03, 2014

Obama Asks Justice to Remove Birth Control Block

The Obama administration says a Supreme Court justice should stop blocking the new health care law's requirement that some religion-affiliated organizations provide health insurance that includes birth control. The Justice Department called on Justice Sonia Sotomayor to dissolve her stay on the contraceptive coverage requirement of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The government says religious nonprofit groups can certify that they don't want to provide contraceptive coverage. A group of Catholic nuns who run nursing homes sued, saying even signing that form violates their beliefs. Read more...

January 01, 2014

Court Justice Delays Birth Control Mandate

Only hours before the law was to take effect, a Supreme Court justice blocked implementation of part of President Barack Obama's health care law that would have forced some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for employees that includes birth control. Justice Sonia Sotomayor's decision came after a flurry of efforts by Catholic-affiliated groups from around the nation. Those groups had rushed to the federal courts to stop Wednesday's start of portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Read more...

December 24, 2013

Judgette Rejects Catholic Challenge to Obamacare

The Catholic Church isn’t harmed by the U.S. Affordable Care Act’s requirement for providing employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives, a judge ruled, throwing out most of a lawsuit challenging the provision. U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson in Washington last Thursday rejected arguments made by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, and schools within its jurisdiction, that the requirement that employers provide cost-free coverage for contraceptive services is contrary to their religious beliefs, and violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and their constitutionally protected free-speech rights. Read more...

Record 87 Abortion Clinics Closed in 2013

Operation Rescue has concluded an exhaustive survey of abortion clinics in the U.S. and announced that it has documented a record number of abortion clinic closures in 2013, during which time 87 surgical abortion clinics halted abortions. The total number of surgical abortion clinics left in the U.S. is now 582. This represents an impressive 12% net decrease in surgical abortion clinics in 2013 alone, and a 73% drop from a high in 1991 of 2,176. Read more...

December 17, 2013

Abortion Doctor Gets 30 Years for Pill Mill

The Philadelphia abortion doctor who was convicted of first-degree murder for killing babies that were born alive in his clinic has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for running a pill mill out of the same clinic. Kermit Gosnell, 72, pleaded guilty to prescribing and dispensing narcotics from June 2008 to February 2010. He wrote fraudulent prescriptions for hundreds of thousands of prescription pills -- including 600,000 pills containing oxycodone -- to cash-paying customers who showed no medical need. Read more...

December 13, 2013

James Dobson Sues Over Abortion Pill Mandate

"Family Talk," a Christian radio ministry, and its president James Dobson are suing the federal government for subjecting them to the Affordable Care Act's, or "Obamacare's," "abortion mandate," despite the nonprofit's religious and moral objections to the mandate. The lawsuit claims the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' birth control mandate violates the First Amendment as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The suit says forcing Family Talk to offer coverage for abortion-inducing drugs force the nonprofit and its president to violate their religious convictions. Read more...

Court Hears N.D. Abortion Law Arguments

North Dakota's Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the state's sole abortion clinic can use drugs to terminate pregnancies, the first challenge before the state's highest court to a recent raft of abortion restrictions considered the most restrictive in the nation. The state's attorney general's office, which defends state laws against court challenges, wants the North Dakota Supreme Court to reverse a July ruling by a district judge that found the 2011 law aimed at limiting abortion drugs violates the state constitution. Read more...

January 19, 2013

ACLU Drops Challenge to Kansas Abortion Law

The American Civil Liberties Union ended its legal challenge Friday to a Kansas law restricting private health insurance coverage for abortions. A court filing shows the parties have agreed to dismiss all remaining claims, with each side bearing its own costs and attorneys' fees. The agreement follows a federal judge's Jan. 7 ruling that, as a matter of law, the ACLU failed to provide any evidence that the Legislature's predominant motivation in passing the 2011 law was to make it more difficult to get abortions. Read more...

May 27, 2012

FBI Probes Fires at Women's Clinics in Georgia

The FBI says it is investigating "intentional" fires that erupted this week at two Atlanta-area women's clinics, one of which performs abortions. "FBI-Atlanta is seeking information regarding intentional fires," the agency said in a statement. It said the first of the blazes occurred on Sunday morning after someone broke out the front window of a gynecological office and set a fire inside the building. Read more...

May 01, 2012

Appeals Judge Stops Planned Parenthood Injunction

A federal appeals judge stepped into the fight over the Texas Women's Health Program on Tuesday, saying he wanted to hear arguments on whether the state should be prevented from enforcing a law that bans Planned Parenthood from participating in the program. Less than 24 hours after a federal judge in Austin ordered Texas not to enforce a rule banning clinics associated with abortion providers from receiving state funds, Fifth Circuit Appeals Judge Jerry Smith granted Texas an emergency stay lifting the Austin court's order. Read more...

Nurse Accused in Baby Theft Denies Being 'Monster'

A Texas woman accused of kidnapping a newborn boy after fatally shooting his mother says she is not "some sort of monster" and people should not judge her until they know the facts. Verna McClain remains jailed without bond after being charged with fatally shooting 28-year-old Kala Golden-Schuchardt and snatching her 3-day-old son on April 17. The infant was later found safe. Read more...

Woman Gets 7 Years for Adoption Scam

A Missouri woman will spend 7 years behind bars after admitting to swindling 23 couples in an adoption scam, Fox 4 reports. 35-year-old Roxanne Janel Jones admitted to running a scam where she would pretend to be pregnant, contact adoption agencies and ask to be set up with couples looking to adopt. Jones then would ask the couples to provide her with living expenses such as rent, according to Fox 4. She admitted in a guilty plea that she scammed 23 couples, from Missouri, Minnesota, Georgia, California, Tennessee and Massachusetts. She also admitted to scamming five adoption agencies. Read more...

April 30, 2012

Judge Blocks Texas From Cutting Off Planned Parenthood

A federal judge stopped Texas from preventing Planned Parenthood from getting state funds through the Women's Health Program. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin ruled there is sufficient evidence that a law banning Planned Parenthood from the program is unconstitutional. He imposed an injunction against enforcing it until he can hear full arguments. The law passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature forbids state agencies from providing funds to an organization affiliated with abortion providers. Eight Planned Parenthood clinics that do not provide abortions sued the state. Read more...

Oklahoma Court Tosses Petition on 'Personhood'

The Oklahoma Supreme Court threw out an initiative petition that would have called for a vote on "personhood" beginning at conception. The ruling cited a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court case -- Planned Parenthood v. Casey -- which centered on Pennsylvania's attempt to challenge Roe v. Wade, which recognized a constitutional right to have an abortion. "The United States Supreme Court has spoken on this issue. The measure is clearly unconstitutional. ... The states are duty bound to follow its interpretation of the law." Read more...

March 29, 2012

Oklahoma Court Strikes Down Ultrasound Law

An Oklahoma judge has permanently blocked a state law that requires women seeking abortions to have an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before the procedure. District Judge Brian Dixon handed down an order Wednesday ruling that the law is unconstitutional and unenforceable. The order says the statute passed in 2010 is an unconstitutional special law because it addresses only patients and physicians concerning abortions and not other medical care. Read more...

February 21, 2012

Alabama Court Issues Landmark Ruling

In a landmark legal case that established the right of a mother to sue if her unborn child wrongfully dies before viability, today the Alabama State Supreme Court unanimously ruled that "each person has a God-given right to life." A concurring opinion issued by four judges specifically stated that Roe v. Wade's viability standard "should be rejected by other states until the day it is overruled by the United States Supreme Court." Read more...

February 11, 2012

Ginsburg Questions Roe v Wade Timing

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested that her predecessors on the high court mistimed the milestone 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide. "It's not that the judgment was wrong, but it moved too far too fast," Ginsburg said. Alluding to the persisting bitter debate over abortion, Ginsburg said the justices of that era could have delayed hearing any case like Roe while the state-by-state process evolved. Alternatively, she said, they could have struck down just the Texas law, which allowed abortions only to save a mother's life, without declaring a right to privacy that legalized the procedure nationwide. Read more...

February 07, 2012

Judge Upholds Texas Sonogram Abortion Law

A federal judge upheld the Texas law requiring women to have a sonogram before having an abortion, saying an appeals court had forced him to declare the law constitutional. District Judge Sam Sparks had previously struck down parts of the law, but his latest ruling said he's bound to follow the direction of the New Orleans-based appeals court. Read more...

N.D. Law Banning Medication Abortions Challenged

A North Dakota law that prohibits abortion doctors from using a drug that was not designed for abortion procedures is being challenged in court, and has been temporarily blocked by a state judge. The law specifically targets misoprostol, also known as cytotec, a drug which was created to treat gastric ulcers. The drug is useful to abortion doctors because it has the effect of softening the cervix and inducing contractions. Read more...

February 06, 2012

Court Rules Against Marcavage Lawsuit

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia has ruled that an anti-abortion protester arrested near the Liberty Bell in 2007 can't collect damages from park rangers who detained him. The three-judge panel upheld a lower-court ruling to dismiss 32-year-old Michael Marcavage's lawsuit against two Independence National Historic Park rangers. The suit stemmed from Marcavage's arrest after he refused to move his protest to another area of the park. Read more...

February 03, 2012

Planned Parenthood Sues Tennessee Health Dept.

Two Planned Parenthood affiliates are suing Tennessee Health Department Commissioner John Dreyzehner in federal court. The lawsuit came after the health department abruptly canceled two competitively bid contracts with the groups to provide preventative services for HIV and syphilis. Last summer, the Planned Parenthood affiliates lost $1.1 million in family planning funding. Read more...

Parents End Request for Forced Abortion

The parents of a 32-year-old pregnant woman, known only as Mary Moe, have officially withdrawn their request to subject their daughter to a forced abortion and sterilization. Moe, who suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder, was being treated in a Massachusetts hospital. When she became pregnant, doctors were purportedly concerned that her medications could harm the unborn child. So they recommended an abortion. However, Moe is a Catholic and she has expressed vocal opposition to abortion. Read more...

January 30, 2012

2nd Judge Slaps Down Fed Motions on Protestor

A federal judge in Denver has slapped down 10 motions made by federal prosecutors against a peaceful abortion protester in a case that observers say has far-reaching ramifications for those engaging in demonstrations of just about any type. The Obama administration had assigned five federal prosecutors to go after Ken Scott, a pro-life advocate who passes out flyers and other information outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Denver. Read more...

January 27, 2012

Judge Denies Effort to Block Colorado Pro-Lifer

A judge has denied the federal government's request to keep a longtime anti-abortion protester from being able to stop cars and talk to drivers as they enter Denver's Planned Parenthood center. U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer rejected the Justice Department's argument that Kenneth Scott's actions make it "unreasonably difficult" for patients and employees to get to the clinic. Read more...